Act of Blood (An FBI/Romance Thriller ~ Book 16)

by Kelley, Morgan

  It was time to get their asses moving. She glanced over at Callen, giving him the cue.

  “Call them in. We have a team to notify.”

  So he did.

  Team Whitefox-Blackhawk was back in business.

  God help Washington DC.

  This was their first big case at home, and already, it was looking like it was going to be an interesting one.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  Lab

  Hoover Building

  Autopsy Suite One

  When they headed down to the morgue, Elizabeth was already planning out the rest of the day. Up first, they had to contact the city ME and get their hands on the bodies.

  Generally, they didn’t have a problem.

  The local authorities were accustomed to sharing jurisdiction with the FBI. They were neighbors and often had to work closely together.

  Still, she knew that technically, they didn’t have any right to those victims quite yet. They needed that third body to make it their jurisdiction. It was going to take schmoozing on her behalf. There was no way she was sending her ME there to do the dirty work.

  They were going to take a little field trip to pick up the dead. It wasn’t her normal gig, but until the team started the autopsies and the information gathering, she didn’t really have much to do.

  It was get the victims and then visit the crime scenes.

  Entering the morgue, she was met with the normal behavior of her team. They were a family, and it was clear that they really enjoyed working together.

  Still, she was a little grossed out.

  They were having a meal.

  On a morgue table.

  “Really?” she asked, moving into the room with Callen and the detectives behind her. “You’re eating on the tables? Is this some sick attempt to catch a fatal disease or freak out the people who have commonsense?”

  Doctor Chris Leonard glanced over and grinned. “Hey, honey. It’s neither. When you have a down moment, you have to take it.”

  Elizabeth relaxed the second she saw his grin. The man was fighting back from losing his wife, and he was winning. It was clearly written on his face.

  He was a survivor.

  As of late, she had a lot to do with that. Chris had become even more affectionate with Elizabeth, and she didn’t stop it. Now that they were house hunting, so he could find a place for himself and Bethe, he’d come to call her honey more than Lyzee.

  It didn’t bother her at all.

  Ethan and Callen had even tossed him a bone since he’d saved her life. It was the least they could do.

  “It’s still nasty, you sickos.”

  As she moved toward them, she noticed Merry was nowhere to be found. Elizabeth could feel the tension coming off Boone in waves.

  As she approached her ME, he offered her a bite of his breakfast.

  While her gut instinct said ‘don’t you dare’, she knew that Chris needed his family, and she was trying to help him.

  God help her.

  She’d better not catch anything.

  Elizabeth accepted a bite, and he began laughing. Tony actually held out a twenty to his friend.

  “You have her wrapped around your damn finger,” he teased, as Chris took the money.

  She lifted a brow, grabbed the twenty, and then tucked it into her shirt.

  Bull shit!

  She was keeping that money. It would pay for the antibiotics she’d need to fight off the plague.

  “Where’s my head tech?” Elizabeth asked, changing the subject before the detective flipped his shit all over the place. He was like a caged tiger, and any second, he was going to start pacing back and forth in the morgue.

  “Merry took a little trip to the ladies’ room,” Chris offered. “She also went to drop off some paperwork in the other morgue. We had to file it with another doctor.”

  She glanced over at Boone, and he looked visibly relaxed. Elizabeth got it. She really did. Ethan and Callen had that look on their faces all the time.

  “Are you bringing us company?” Chris asked, putting down his fork to grab his cane. When he headed her way, she knew what was coming.

  He dropped his arm around her waist and waited for her to give them the news.

  “Yeah, we have a case.”

  There was an actual cheer from the sickos. Her people loved the dead. They were the happiest when there were bodies in the coolers.

  To each their own.

  “You all remember Detective Boone Savage,” she began, reintroducing him. “He’s in need of our help. This is his partner, Detective Sima Nelson.”

  She waved at all of them.

  “What do you have?” Tony Magnus asked. “Please say bones. Please say bones.”

  She stared at him. “You’re insane.”

  “Please say I can go. Please say I can go,” he teased.

  It made her laugh.

  “We’re working out of the Hoover building, so you all go,” she answered, looking around. “Oh, great! We’re at our destination.”

  The team groaned.

  They preferred a field trip on the taxpayer’s dime, and weren’t afraid to let her know it. Working in-house did nothing for them.

  Then she told them about the three victims, the handkerchief, and the missing man.

  “Wow, that’s an odd one.”

  She didn’t disagree with her ME. In fact, that was probably the only reason she took this one. Odd meant challenging.

  “You and I have a date,” she stated.

  “Had I known that, I wouldn’t have had breakfast,” Chris teased.

  Tony objected. “Really? You’re playing favorites again. We all know he’s your favorite person in the room, Elizabeth, but really. We have feelings.”

  She snorted. “Actually, he’s not my favorite person in the room. Callen is, but Chris gets to be my favorite ME.”

  “I’m the only ME.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  The team was amused. What made it even more entertaining was that the two detectives were watching them. To an outsider, it looked like they just didn’t give a damn.

  Only they did.

  This was part of the process. The team was getting ready to face down some sicko with his hate on.

  “There isn’t time for breakfast right now,” Elizabeth offered. “We’re going to go claim the bodies from the city ME. We’re not going flamenco dancing, and there’s no time to have a party.”

  “Was that an option?” Chris teased.

  Elizabeth wrapped her arm around his waist in support. She knew that there were still good days and bad days for Chris. She’d watched him the last six weeks struggling with moving out, moving on, and raising Bethe alone.

  “What do you want us to do while you and Chris are out playing with the city employees?” Callen asked. While he didn’t like letting her out of his sight, he knew that the second she left the building, Ivan, her security detail would be following at a distance.

  Plus, she was with Chris.

  The man would die for her—as he’d already proved while they were in New Orleans.

  “I want the team to prep the morgue for two bodies. I want someone to dig up Seaton and Madden to do research, and I want you, Callen, to do a really deep search on this case. I know our two cops checked, but let’s double check to make sure the ‘handkerchief killer’ doesn’t already exist.”

  While Boone wasn’t insulted, it was clear that Detective Nelson was.

  “I get the feeling you think we’re incompetent. I hope you don’t plan on double checking everything we do for this entire case,” she stated.

  The room went silent.

  Apparently, this was the first time this detective worked with the FBI, and someone like Elizabeth Blackhawk.

  She didn’t share.

  This case was officially hers.

  Elizabeth faced her and while there was a smile on her face, it didn’t meet her eyes. “I’m sorry, are you talking to me,
Detective?” she asked.

  “I just think…”

  “Yeah, well, stop that. This is my rodeo. I get the feeling you think you can tell me how to do this. When you called us in, you giftwrapped this case for us, and that means it’s my present. I’m going to unwrap and play with it the way I normally do.”

  Her body language said it all.

  She was waiting for the detective to fight her on it.

  “I’m not relinquishing control,” Sima stated. “We came for help, not to give you our case.”

  Elizabeth shrugged. “Then have a nice day and good luck with the case. I’m running this, or I’m declining to assist you.”

  “So if you can’t be the boss, you kick us off the playground?” she asked. “Boone, you’re okay with this?”

  Elizabeth waited.

  “I’m okay with it. She’s damn good at her job, Sima. This is how Elizabeth works.”

  She wasn’t having it.

  “Look around, Detective,” Elizabeth began. “You have the best of the best in here. My ME is one of the top forensic medical examiners in the country. My bone guy has more anthropological studies done than any other scientist I know. Then there are the techs in this room. If you need evidence found, catalogued, and in your hands, they’re the ones you go to.”

  Sima didn’t look impressed.

  “Callen Whitefox is really good at picking up the small details, I’m hell on a case, and then you have our head tech. Merry is a goddess among criminologists. This is what we do all day.”

  “Uh, me too.”

  “Yeah, but you deal with murderers. We deal with serial killers. That’s our jam. We don’t pretend to come to your precinct and do your job. Don’t come to ours and try to do mine. This is my office. I picked my team, and you came to me. I was more than happy to wait for another nutjob to cross my path.”

  The way she said it, Sima got the impression she was calling her the nutjob.

  Yeah, she didn’t like this woman at all.

  Boone was out of his mind to want to work with Elizabeth Blackhawk. It appeared all the gossip was right. She was impossible to deal with on a case.

  Sima Nelson crossed her arms.

  “Now, do you want our help or not?” she asked.

  The entire time, the team didn’t move. They were all standing there as the detective made up her mind. When she didn’t say a word, Elizabeth went in for the kill.

  “Who’s the lead detective?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I am,” Boone stated. “I have seniority.”

  Great.

  That made this easier.

  “Boone, do you want my help or not? This is your one shot. I could have another case later where I can’t be here to help you. Decide. You’re wasting our time.”

  “I want your help,” he stated without hesitating.

  He didn’t even look over at his partner. He knew this was going to put a strain on their new partnership, but he wasn’t a cop to make friends. He was a cop to help people, and these victims had suffered. They deserved justice, not a battle of egos between two women.

  “Great. Callen, get a whiteboard up with the victims’ faces, someone text Seaton and Madden, and team, get ready for two bodies.”

  The team waited.

  “Now!”

  They saluted and got moving. As they did their thing, Elizabeth moved toward Boone and Sima.

  “Detective, you can’t make this personal,” she stated. “You have to be objective. This isn’t about you or me. It’s about the dead.”

  “I get that, but you’re damn bossy and arrogant.”

  The room stopped.

  You could hear a pin drop.

  “Yes, I am. I’m also a bitch, vindictive, and I ride tail like no one’s business, but I close cases. I’ve closed every one I’ve ever had.”

  Well, that was a lie.

  Bonnie got away. She was the one mark on Elizabeth’s record, but one day…

  She’d have her vindication.

  “If you’d like to go back to your morgue with my ME and myself, you’re welcome to join us,” she stated. “Boone, you can hang here and prep the team. Help Callen get my board together, and later, when we head to look at the scenes, I’ll need both of you there.”

  He knew she was throwing him a bone by letting him stay. He was going to be near Merry, and that was one hell of a huge gift.

  “Thank you, Elizabeth.”

  “You’re welcome, my friend. Now let’s get moving. We have a crazy to catch.”

  She motioned toward her ME, and then crossed to Callen. “I’ll be right back, handsome,” she offered, touching his cheek. When she stared into his warm, chocolate-y brown eyes, Elizabeth could feel her heart skip.

  Yeah, she loved him.

  Callen picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Keep my wife safe,” he stated. Then he glanced up at Chris. “Watch your backs.”

  She winked at him. “We’ll try.”

  From the look on the detective’s face, she was going to have to do just that. Sima Nelson didn’t like her, and Elizabeth felt the same.

  The woman rubbed her the wrong way.

  Now she had to figure out why, and if she was patient enough to work the case while the woman was shooting visual daggers at her.

  Screw it.

  Elizabeth didn’t care.

  This was the nature of the beast whether Detective Nelson liked it or not.

  This was her office.

  Her rodeo.

  And now her case.

  The ball was in her court.

  Again.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  Merry was rushing around like a chicken with her head cut off. She got the text that they had a case, and she was in the process of rushing back to the morgue.

  When she got inside, she could see the team moving around. Suddenly, she tripped, spilling papers and specimen containers all over the place.

  Yeah, she was a total klutz.

  As she bent down to begin picking them all up, someone began helping her.

  “Hello, cher.”

  The sound of his warm voice sent chills down her body right to her toes.

  “Boone?”

  She stood in surprise. When she saw the sexy grin on his face, she didn’t hesitate. Merry moved into his body to hug him. A part of her didn’t believe he was really there.

  She’d been thinking about him, and here he was.

  “Hello, my little gardenia,” he whispered into her ear. “I missed you these last few hours. I’ve been thinking about you, Merry.”

  She didn’t ever mix business with pleasure in the morgue, but this was Boone. He was her lifeline when the world got too hard to navigate alone.

  There was no way in hell she was going to skip the physical contact. Besides, no one seemed to care. They were all moving around, getting ready for the new case.

  “I missed you,” she said as he lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss was sweet, gentle, and full of love. It brought tears to her eyes.

  Literally.

  The chaos slipped away and there was peace.

  As soon as she broke the kiss, his warm palm went to her cheek to stroke it.

  “I missed you too,” he offered.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  He told her about the case.

  All the while, he was staggered by the violet of her eyes. They were filled with love, heat, amusement, and joy. He’d never get bored with this woman. She was like some adventure novel, and he couldn’t wait to read onto the next chapter. Merry intrigued him, and he was blessed to be the man in her life.

  The more he discovered about her, the more he wanted to learn. She was his infatuation.

  “We get to work together again,” Boone said, keeping his voice low. “It’s going to be hard.”

  She lifted a brow. “Why?”

  “I find myself distracted around you, Miss Peyton. I want to spend all day kissing you, cher. I’m pret
ty sure that’s frowned upon here in the morgue.”

  Her heart skipped.

  Oh, she knew the feeling.

  From the second she got up, to the second she went to bed, Boone Savage was the only person she thought about. Her palms itched, her lips craved his, and she wanted to do really naughty things to get his attention.

  She stroked him through his dress pants, even as she prayed no one noticed.

  Boone’s icy blue eyes dilated at her touch.

  “Meredith.”

  “Want to help me get ready for the bodies?” she asked, knowing they had an audience.

  He grinned. “Yes, I do, and for the record…later, I’ll repay you for that touch, and I promise you’ll love every second of it too.”

  Boone picked up all of the papers and specimen containers. He carried them toward her workstation. When he put them down, he noticed she was watching him.

  It made his whole body react.

  This was going to be damn hard. Here was the mother of his child. What he wanted to do was beg her to marry him, but he couldn’t.

  Not yet.

  Merry wouldn’t do it, and he knew it. She wouldn’t tie the knot as long as Derek Zanders was out there.

  They had to clean up this mess first.

  “Tell me what you need me to do, cher. I’m all yours until Elizabeth returns with the bodies and I have to head out with her to the crime scenes.”

  She had to turn her head.

  Merry wanted to beg him to love her forever and to make her his wife before their child was born. Still, she couldn’t force him.

  Boone was laid back.

  It was clear he was moving at a different rate than she was, and she had to respect that.

  “Let’s get the tables ready for Doctor Leonard,” she said. “He’ll start the back to back autopsies as soon as he’s returned.”

  He heard it in her voice.

  She didn’t sound right. “Merry?”

  She blew it off.

  This was work.

  Merry knew that fate had yet to decide what her life was going to be like. She couldn’t let it rattle her.

  Still…

  She wished he’d hold her tight.

  Merry was scared.